ThinkFast: April 11, 2008
ThinkFast: April 11, 2008
This Sunday at 8 pm ET, CNN will broadcast The Compassion Forum. Sponsored by the Faith in Public Life, the presidential candidates forum will focus on “five key issues to folks of faith: domestic and international poverty, global AIDS, climate change, genocide in Darfur, and human rights and torture.” Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both confirmed that they will participate. Sen. John McCain has thus far declined the invitation, which is still open.
In a hearing yesterday, Attorney General Mike Mukasey said the Fourth Amendment “applies across the board, regardless of whether we’re in wartime or in peacetime,” even though the memo by John Yoo, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, had concluded otherwise. Mukasey, however, refused to say whether that memo was withdrawn.
A Justice Department Inspector General (IG) report “on the FBI’s role in the interrogations of prisoners in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and Iraq has been delayed for months because the Pentagon is reviewing how much of it should remain classified.” IG Glenn Fine said that he has pushed the Pentagon to finish its review, but officials have not complied “in a timely fashion.”
“House Judiciary Committee lawyers declared that the White House and Congress are at a ‘constitutional impasse’ in a legal motion filed Thursday in federal court aimed at forcing former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to testify before the panel.” In the motion, the lawyers compared the impasse “to President Nixon’s attempts to stonewall inquiries into the Watergate scandal.” Read the full motion here.
Two of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top advisers and fundraisers “are among several Republican and Democratic presidential campaign officials whose lobbying firms have been paid more than $15 million by foreign governments since 2005.” The firms of McCain advisers Charlie Black and Thomas G. Loeffler “received millions of dollars lobbying the White House, Congress and others as agents of nearly a dozen foreign clients.”
“I’ve told him he’ll have all the time he needs,” Bush said yesterday of Gen. David Petraeus, after endorsing the general’s “indefinite suspension” of troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer.
During a Senate Armed Forces hearing yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was forced to apologize to Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) for “confusion” over Iraqi reconstruction money. On Tuesday, Amb. Ryan Crocker told Levin that the United States was “no longer involved in the physical reconstruction business,” but on the same day, Levin received a letter from the Pentagon about “a coming shift of $600 million to pay for Iraqi reconstruction.”
“Americans’ confidence in the economy fell to a new low,” in the latest RBC Cash Index, “dragged down by worries about mounting job losses, record-high home foreclosures and zooming energy prices.” The new level was “the worst since the index began in 2002″ and “marked the fourth month in a row where confidence has fallen to an all-time low.”
Yesterday, the Senate approved a housing relief bill that provides tax breaks and credits for home builders and buyers as well as “$150 million for counseling borrowers and $4 billion for local governments to buy foreclosed properties.” The White House is opposed to the bill while some Democrats said it does not go far enough.
And finally: A photograph of Vice President Cheney wearing sunglasses while fly-fishing in Idaho has caused a stir on the Internet, “fueled by speculation about what is being reflected in his sunglasses.” ABC News notes that within 48 hours, the picture had “been posted, linked, enlarged, enhanced on dozens of Web sites.” Guesses on the image in his lenses ranged from a naked alien, Osama bin Laden, and a “woman in her birthday suit.” Cheney’s spokeswoman, however, said the image is nothing more than an arm casting a reel. (See an enlarged version of the photo here.)
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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U.N. Official Calls for Study Of Neocons’ Role in 9/11
WASHINGTON — A new U.N. Human Rights Council official is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Richard Falk, Milbank professor of international law emeritus at Princeton, has challenged the “9-11 official version.”
Information edited from:
http://www2.nysun.com/ pf.php?id=74465&v=7286197021
** When asked for a comment about the appointment of Mr. Falk, former ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton said, “This is exactly why we voted against the new human rights council.”
April 11th, 2008 at 9:00 amSlavery’s Staying Power
Information edited from:
April 11th, 2008 at 9:02 amhttp://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/23/7838/
I suspect that McCain has declined the Compassion Forum invite because the “five key issues to folks of faith” are different for him.
Five keys issues for the Forum:
1) domestic and international poverty
2) global AIDS
3) climate change
4) genocide in Darfur
5) human rights and torture
Five key issues for the group McCain is trying to impress:
1) keeping gays from kissing
2) banning abortion
3) restoring teacher-led prayer in public schools
4) teaching creationism in schools
5) hastening The Rapture
If McCain tried to discuss anything on the first list, he would probably twist himself into knots to the point where he would need surgery.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:10 amFrom HuffPo:
McCain Camp Lashes Soros — After McCain Took His Money
Sen. John McCain’s campaign aggressively fired back against news on Thursday that Democratic financier George Soros was taking part in a $40 million third-party effort to battle Republicans in the fall.
Hoping to raise funds from the news, campaign manager Rick Davis painted Soros as a “liberal megadonor” eager to “buy this election with [his] billions.”
Well, how about the McCain-founded Reform Institute, a nonpartisan 501c3 organization dedicated to promoting accountability and transparency in government.
Indeed, according to the Reform Institute’s own website the “Constitutions & Legal Policy Program” of Soros’ own Open Society Institute donated “above $50,000″ to the group while McCain was with the organization.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:12 amIn a hearing yesterday, Attorney General Mike Mukasey said the Fourth Amendment “applies across the board, regardless of whether we’re in wartime or in peacetime,” even though the memo by John Yoo, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, had concluded otherwise.
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Mukasey isn’t convincing me that I should believe anything that comes out of his mouth. Perhaps when his actions start matching his words, I might think otherwise.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:13 amSens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have both confirmed that they will participate. Sen. John McCain has thus far declined the invitation, which is still open.
I guess this means that McCain is not a compassionate conservative. Who would have thunk it?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:17 amFrom HuffPo:
Hoping to raise funds from the news, (McCain) campaign manager Rick Davis painted Soros as a “liberal megadonor” eager to “buy this election with [his] billions.”
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Pot, meet kettle. I guess “buying” elections with obscene amounts of money is only OK for the GOP?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:17 amHouse Dems compare Bush to Nixon in seeking contempt ruling
Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee compared President Bush to the late President Richard Nixon in a legal motion filed today in federal court as part of their civil contempt lawsuit against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers for failing to comply with panel subpoenas. The subpoenas were issued as part of the committee’s probe into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.
“Not since the days of Watergate have the Congress and the federal courts been confronted with such an expansive view of executive privilege as the one asserted by the current presidential administration and the individual Defendants in this case,’ said House General Counsel Irv Nathan and other House lawyers in their 45-page motion.
“During the course of the Investigation, Harriet Miers, a private citizen and former Counsel to the President, asserted that a President’s mere request that she not even appear to testify before, and
produce documents to, the Committee is enough to bestow absolute immunity upon her from a validly issued congressional subpoena. Similarly, Joshua Bolten contended that, as White House Chief of Staff, he is “absolutely immune” from congressional process and thus is not required to comply in any manner with a Committee subpoena for documents. These extraordinary and wholly unsupportable claims flout established law and suggest a return to the long-since discredited executive mantra of ‘when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.’”
That quote is takenfrom an interview Nixon did with TV interviewer David Frost in 1977, three years after the Watergate scandal had forced him to resign the presidency.
The Judiciary Committee is seeking “partial summary judgement” against Miers and Bolten. Miers, at the direction of the White House, declined to appear before the panel to testify on what she knew about the U.S. attorney dismissals. Both Bolten and Miers, at the presdient’s direction, have refused to turn over a “privilege log” describing documents that they are withholding from the committee.
Relying on a claim of executive privilege, Bush has declined to allow House and Senate Democrats to question Miers and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, or allow Bolten to turn over any internal White House documents related to the prosecutor purge. The House approved a criminal contempt motion against Bolten and Miers, but Attorney General Michael Mukasey, citing earlier Justice Dept. legal opinions, has declined to allow federal prosecutors to bring that case to a grand jury.
If the President can do it, so can we. WOW. (The rest of the story is on Politico.com.) I don’t think there is anyone else left that is not completely and utterly corrupt. Well, they definitely took a page from George Bush’s playbook.
As the old saying goes: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” That is the theme of the Bush Administration in a nutshell.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:19 amIn a hearing yesterday, Attorney General Mike Mukasey said the Fourth Amendment “applies across the board, regardless of whether we’re in wartime or in peacetime,” even though the memo by John Yoo, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel, had concluded otherwise. Mukasey, however, refused to say whether that memo was withdrawn.
Mukasey really does need to be impeached. First he lied in his conformation hearing by saying that he would not obstruct Congress when he was AG and he has done nothing BUT obstruct Congress. And then you look at his saying one thing, but doing something entirely different with this fourth amendment issue. The guy is a real sleaze. He’s almost making me yearn to have the doofus Gonzales back.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:19 am“House Judiciary Committee lawyers declared that the White House and Congress are at a ‘constitutional impasse’ in a legal motion filed Thursday in federal court aimed at forcing former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to testify before the panel.” In the motion, the lawyers compared the impasse “to President Nixon’s attempts to stonewall inquiries into the Watergate scandal.”
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OK, Nancy — when are you going to put inherent contempt on the table?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:20 amIG Glenn Fine said that he has pushed the Pentagon to finish its review, but officials have not complied “in a timely fashion.”
Of course they haven’t and they won’t. They are trying to run out the clock on all the investigations in the hope that President Obama will wipe the slate clean and give them a pass. I really do wish that someone would ask both Obama and Clinton what they would do, as President, about all the crimes that have been committed by the Bush Crime Family.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:21 amMcCain has never met a flip that didn’t flop.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:22 amIn the motion, the lawyers compared the impasse “to President Nixon’s attempts to stonewall inquiries into the Watergate scandal.”
Please don’t tell me that the House Judiciary Committee expected anything else out of this Whitehouse. They have a tool at their disposal, Inherent Contempt, but for some reason they won’t use it. That is the only way we will ever see these two testify before the clock runs out.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:22 am#3 misshusseinmolly Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 9:10 am
If McCain tried to discuss anything on the first list, he would probably twist himself into knots to the point where he would need surgery.
OMG, I can’t stop laughing, that is a HALL OF FAMER. And very true.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:23 am“I’ve told him he’ll have all the time he needs,” Bush said yesterday of Gen. David Petraeus
Hmmm. Interesting guarantee. Does this mean:
(a) Bush is angling for a third term;
(b) McCain has just been appointed;
(c) Bush has a time-machine.
BTW, GE results today.
http://www.bloomberg.com/ apps/ news?pid=20601087&sid=aBgo3dOq7UDU&refer=home
Ouch.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:23 amMukasey refused to say that the memo regarding the fourth amendent has been withdrawn.
TRANLATION: You bet your ass that policy is still in effect.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:25 amooops! translation- sorry about that, the caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:26 amO/T
If rhf, now a hit-and-run troll, makes it rounds on any future threads, I will not only flag it, but email Faiz in better hopes of having it thrown out of here. The rhf troll refuses to clean up its behavior.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:26 am“I’ve told him he’ll have all the time he needs,” Bush said yesterday of Gen. David Petraeus, after endorsing the general’s “indefinite suspension” of troop withdrawals from Iraq this summer.
I saw Keith Olbermann dissect Bush’s speech last night about the Occupation of Iraq. Everything the man said was a lie or an obfuscation. He said that the troops would now only have to stay 12 months and would have 12 months leave time. Problem with this is that it doesn’t apply to any troops in Iraq now. It only applies to troops sent over there after August. Bush said that after June there will be 25% fewer troops in Iraq, like that was some kind of huge accomplishment. The problem is that when he did the escalation he increased the troops by 37% so the amount of troops in Iraq is still 12% more than before the escalation.
The only thing Bush is interested in at this point is to run out the clock on Iraq.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:29 am“Americans’ confidence in the economy fell to a new low,” in the latest RBC Cash Index, “dragged down by worries about mounting job losses, record-high home foreclosures and zooming energy prices.” The new level was “the worst since the index began in 2002? and “marked the fourth month in a row where confidence has fallen to an all-time low.”
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Every day it seems we are being told that either our economy or confidence in our economy is hitting a new low. Which immediately brought Chubby Checker to mind:
Jack be limbo, Jack be quick
Jack go unda limbo stick
All around the limbo clock
Hey, let’s do the limbo rock
Limbo lower now
Limbo lower now
How low can you go
Thanks a lot! Now that song will be running through my head all morning…
April 11th, 2008 at 9:30 amA solution to the home-loan crisis:
Let Bear-Stearns and any other mortgage house go out of business if they make bad loans and anyone that owes them money gets to consider their mortgage paid off.
What? Republicans won’t go for that kind of free-market solution? Are you saying they are hypocrites? Next you’ll say they are war-mongering morons getting rich on death!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:32 amYou know, every day for the past 2-3 years I get up and read the news expecting our country to have had some dramatic evidence of it’s demise. I keep expecting to see another false flag, martial law, or bombs dropped on another country. You know, something where we can all say, “See, it’s over, it’s gone too far.”
April 11th, 2008 at 9:33 amThen I woke up this morning and realized that instead they are continuing to bleed us from the 1000 wounds I do read about every morning, and don’t need to use the trump card. Just keep us distracted by the possibility of it. If they pull out the trump card, though, they face the possibility that we unify and clean up. Much easier this way to erode our country and all it stands for with a thousand money sucking, right depriving wounds.
Let’s get real. This is not going to end because collectively we can’t work up the outrage needed to stop it. All our outrage is spread over 1000 separate outrages.
danishpigkartoon Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I saw a couple of things!
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Just spamming this morning, or do you have any intelligent comment on any of these items?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:37 amIf (s)elected president, John McCain’s own staff would have their own share of human-rights complaints.
“McCain’s CoS has sustained a black eye,” reports Chief White House Assault & Battery Correspondent David Gregory.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:39 amThis is why we stay in Iraq and Afghanistan:
US Lawmakers Invested in Iraq, Afghanistan Wars
Abid Aslam / Inter-Press Service | April 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - U.S. lawmakers have a financial interest in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a review of their accounts has revealed.
Members of Congress invested nearly 196 million dollars of their own money in companies that receive hundreds of millions of dollars a day from Pentagon contracts to provide goods and services to U.S. armed forces, say nonpartisan watchdog groups.
David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq, is to brief the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees on Tuesday and Wednesday. The latest findings are unlikely to have a significant impact on this week’s proceedings but could stoke anti-incumbent sentiment in this year of presidential and legislative elections.
Lawmakers charged with overseeing Pentagon contractors hold stock in those very firms, as do vocal critics of the war in Iraq, says the Centre for Responsive Politics (CRP).
Senator John Kerry, the Democrat from Massachusetts who staked his 2004 presidential bid in part on his opposition to the war, tops the list of investors. His holdings in firms with Pentagon contracts of at least five million dollars stood at between 28.9 million dollars and 38.2 million dollars as of Dec. 31, 2006. Kerry sits on the Senate foreign relations panel.
Members of Congress are required to report their personal finances every year but only need to state their assets in broad ranges.
Other top investors include Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen, a New Jersey Republican with holdings of 12.1 million - 49.1 million dollars; Rep. Robin Hayes, a North Carolina Republican (9.2 million - 37.1 million dollars); Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin (5.2 million - 7.6 million dollars); and Rep. Jane Harman, a California Democrat (2.7 million - 6.3 million dollars).
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Democrat and former governor of West Virginia who chairs the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, invested some 2.0 million dollars in Pentagon contractors, CRP says.
Other panel chiefs who invested in defence firms include Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent who presides over the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Rep. Howard Berman, the California Democrat who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
In all, 151 current members of Congress — more than one-fourth of the total — have invested between 78.7 million dollars and 195.5 million dollars in companies that received defence contracts of at least 5.0 million dollars, according to CRP.
These companies received more than 275.6 billion dollars from the government in 2006, or 755 million dollars per day, says budget watchdog group OMB Watch.
The investments yielded lawmakers 15.8 million - 62 million dollars in dividend income, capital gains, royalties, and interest from 2004 through 2006, says CRP.
Not all the firms deal in arms or military equipment. Some make soft drinks or medical supplies and military contracts represent a small fraction of their revenues. Many are leaders in their industries and, as such, feature in the investment portfolios of millions of ordinary people who invest at least a portion of their savings in mutual funds, which in turn hold stocks in up to hundreds of companies.
“Giant corporations outside of the defence sector, such as Pepsico, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, have received defence contracts and are all popular investments for both members of Congress and the general public,” says CRP.
“So common are these companies, both as personal investments and as defence contractors, it would appear difficult to build a diverse blue-chip stock portfolio without at least some of them,” the group acknowledges.
If some of the stocks appear innocent, aides say legislators also are. Some did not buy the stocks in question but inherited them. Many hold them in blind trusts, so called because the investments are handled by independent entities, at least theoretically without the politicians’ knowledge of how their assets are being managed.
Even so, according to CRP, owning stock in companies under contract with the Pentagon could prove “problematic for members of Congress who sit on committees that oversee defence policy and budgeting.”
Members of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees held 3.0 million - 5.1 million dollars in companies specialising in weapons and other exclusively military goods and services, it added.
Critics have assailed President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney for their ties to companies seen as benefiting from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Bush was characterised as pushing conflict in the interest of the oil fraternity whence he hailed.
Before becoming vice president, Cheney headed Halliburton, a major player in the oil services industry and the object of controversies involving political connections, government contracts, and business ethics.
Halliburton’s subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, was given multi-billion-dollar contracts to provide construction, hospitality, and other services to the U.S. military following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The contracts drew fire because of Cheney’s history and then-ongoing financial relationship with the firm, and because the company did not have to compete for the Pentagon’s business. The firm was renamed KBR Inc. after Halliburton spun it off last year.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:39 amKids called dogs on “tolerance” tour of mosque
Exactly how Mormons treat non-believers too.
“So?”
April 11th, 2008 at 9:39 amNew York Times Explains Winter Soldier Blackout
Public editor responds to concerns raised by FAIR
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3340
April 11th, 2008 at 9:39 amCaption:
McBush sees that his refill for Viagra was approved!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:40 amThere you go with the “everybody else does it” argument. Still doesn’t make it right!
So? We have more Mormons Temples in the U.S. than Mosques.
You need your “sights” adjusted, or are you just a terror-lover?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:42 amTwo of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top advisers and fundraisers “are among several Republican and Democratic presidential campaign officials whose lobbying firms have been paid more than $15 million by foreign governments since 2005.” The firms of McCain advisers Charlie Black and Thomas G. Loeffler “received millions of dollars lobbying the White House, Congress and others as agents of nearly a dozen foreign clients.”
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Hmmmm, let’s see:
Foreign governments + money + lobbyists = motivated lobbyists with an agenda.
Motivated lobbyists with an agenda + “advising” McCain = objectivity???
Yeah, right.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:43 amThere you go with the “everybody else does it” argument. Still doesn’t make it right!
Catholics, Jews, Muslims (organized religion) = Birds of a feather.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:44 amDon Siegelman Says Rove Involved in Theft of 2002 Election
“…I mention the vote stealing in every interview. 60 Minutes cut it out. Don Abrams didn’t want to go there either. I have told the story to the Washington Post and LA Times.”
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/32670
April 11th, 2008 at 9:44 amI heard on Today — though not in these exact words — that the Clintons will release full list of donors to Bill’s library in exchange for Hillary’s election to the presidency.
What a deal!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:46 amWelcome to the United Fascist States of America!
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined .
9. Corporate Power is Protected .
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections
April 11th, 2008 at 9:47 amTP doing a very quick cleanup. Nicely done!
April 11th, 2008 at 9:47 amTP doing a very quick cleanup. Nicely done!
They’ve finally decided with Elizabeth Edwards potential presence that there’s no room for juvenile distractions.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:50 amDangerous animal virus on US mainland?
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is likely to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak.
Skeptical Democrats in Congress are demanding to see internal documents they believe highlight the risks and consequences of the decision. An epidemic of the disease, foot and mouth, which only affects animals, could devastate the livestock industry.
One such government report, produced last year and already turned over to lawmakers by the Homeland Security Department, combined commercial satellite images and federal farm data to show the proximity to livestock herds of locations that have been considered for the new lab. “Would an accidental laboratory release at these locations have the potential to affect nearby livestock?” asked the nine-page document. It did not directly answer the question.
A simulated outbreak of the disease — part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called “Crimson Sky” — ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation’s National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses. In the simulation, protests broke out in some cities amid food shortages.
LINK
April 11th, 2008 at 9:56 amSen. John McCain’s campaign aggressively fired back against news on Thursday that Democratic financier George Soros was taking part in a $40 million third-party effort to battle Republicans in the fall.
Hoping to raise funds from the news, campaign manager Rick Davis painted Soros as a “liberal megadonor” eager to “buy this election with [his] billions.”
I guess that means they will object if Rupert Murdock or Richard Mellon Scaife put large amounts of money out to campaign against Obama. What…they see nothing wrong with that. Well, what do you expect from the Hypocrite Party?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:56 am‘Top Bush aides, including Vice President Cheney, micromanaged the torture of terrorist suspects from the White House basement, according to an ABC News report aired last night.
Discussions were so detailed, ABC’s sources said, that some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White House advisory group. In addition to Cheney, the group included then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft.’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/ content/ blog/ 2008/ 04/ 10/ BL2008041002069.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
I wonder if they had live video feed too.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:58 am“House Judiciary Committee lawyers declared that the White House and Congress are at a ‘constitutional impasse’ in a legal motion filed Thursday in federal court aimed at forcing former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to testify before the panel.” In the motion, the lawyers compared the impasse “to President Nixon’s attempts to stonewall inquiries into the Watergate scandal.”
Since when is investigating unethical and illegal behavior butting heads with those attempting to cover it up referred to as a “constitutional impasse” ?
April 11th, 2008 at 9:59 amAt least one member of the club had some qualms. ABC reports that Ashcroft “was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and had repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.
“According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: ‘Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.’”
April 11th, 2008 at 10:00 amhttp://www.alternet.org/democracy/81935/
This idiot refers to voter registration as a “partisan activity”. Now, it would be a partisan activity if they only allowed Republicans to register, but allowing injured vets who can’t get out of the hospital to register to vote has nothing to do with partisanship.
Now the Democrats need to get out a Voter Registration drive where they go to the veterans in the hospitals to help them register. If the VA denies them permission to help the Vets register to vote, then they need to have a very large hissy fit about it and bring in the press. Right now the MSM IS NOT covering this issue. When I did a Google News search, the only resources for this issue is alternative press and on-line press.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:01 ammary Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 10:00 am
At least one member of the club had some qualms. ABC reports that Ashcroft “was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and had repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.
“According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: ‘Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.’”
Has everyone ever seen any other administration being this obsessed with the view “History” will have of them ?
Especially based upon their heinous , despicable , and often-times ridiculous behavior ?
April 11th, 2008 at 10:04 amHas everyone ever seen any other administration being this obsessed with the view “History” will have of them ?
Criminally active administrations (like Dick Nixon) are constantly trying to paint themselves in a “Holy” light.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:05 amMcWars Says:
If rhf, now a hit-and-run troll, makes it rounds on any future threads, I will not only flag it, but email Faiz in better hopes of having it thrown out of here. The rhf troll refuses to clean up its behavior
The problem is that rhf’s bad behavior is all centered around dissing Obama and defending Hillary. Since TP supports Hillary, I doubt that they will ban rhf. That’s a bit of hypcocracy that TP doesn’t get.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am‘Taxpayers can take stock of how the federal government spent their 2007 income tax dollars: over 40 percent went towards military spending, while education received just over 4 percent. This publication shows how the median income family’s 2007 income tax dollars were spent for every state and 200 cities, towns and counties.’
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/taxday2008
About 42 cents of every one of my tax dollars is currently being funneled to the military.
At the link you can find out how much of YOUR tax dollars are going to the miliary.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:07 amAnybody else tune into Larry King last night to watch Randi Rhodes interviewed?
They cut her segment down to two minutes. I was so pissed. He spent 20 minutes on a polygamist cult. Then 10 minutes with Glenn Beck. Finally he brought Randi on. But then her segment was immediately interrupted with another breaking story about a solider in Mexico who committed a murder.
What a crapfest that Larry King show is!! Good lord who could watch that junk?
The only story that should’ve interrupted Randi was coverage of the War Crimes committed by Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice and Ashcroft. If we had a real media this story would e 24/7 and everyone in the administration would’ve resigned with 24 hrous.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:07 amFour more years of Bush-like, ivory tower elitism?
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) – Hillary Clinton used her trademark laugh Thursday to deflect a question about the $800,000 her husband earned in 2005 giving speeches for a Bogota-based group that supports the Colombia free trade agreement — the same trade deal she currently opposes.
Asked by CNN if those earnings represented a conflict of interest given that she has dipped into her family’s pocketbook to pay campaign bills, Clinton threw up her hands and laughed loudly for several seconds.
“How many angels dance on the head of the pin?,” she responded, continuing to giggle. “I have really, uh, nothing to … I mean, how do you answer that?”
April 11th, 2008 at 10:08 am“According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: ‘Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.’”
I don’t think this shows that Ashcroft was worried about the issue of torture. He was only worried that it was being discussed at the White House. He would probably have been fine with it if the discussions had taken place in his office or some where other than the White House.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:09 amTake note of the fact that Ashcroft DIDN’T say “This is wrong” but only that he was worried about how it would be seen in hindsight, Bilbo.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:12 amFarm bill deal could override veto
House farm bill negotiators outlined Thursday a bipartisan compromise that jettisons Senate disaster aid funds but promises to have enough Republican support that it could overcome any future veto by President Bush.
“If the White House is stupid enough to veto this, they’re going to get overridden,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) told Politico. “That’s where we’re at right now.”
“I told [Agriculture Secretary Ed] Schafer, they aren’t just being unreasonable, they’re going to be totally irrelevant. This is the big thing that has happened here in these last few days.”
The streamlined House package promises new money for food stamps, fruit and vegetable growers and conservation programs, but drops all of about $4.05 billion previously allocated for a disaster aid trust fund championed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and other Great Plains colleagues.
I sincerely hope they are right. This is a good bill that will help so many people in desperate need.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:13 am“Classified,” “National Security,” “Executive Privilege,” all = nothing more than asscover.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:19 amUh oh… this makes me a little nervous. Half of my comments are juvenile distratctions.
I guess I’d better shape up around here.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am#42 Bilbo Hussein Baggins Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 10:01 am
Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks to Voter Registration for Injured Vets
I couldn’t beleive it when I heard about this yesterday. Veterans deserve the right to vote, and their justification “paritisan activity” is absurd. I agree with you.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:21 amMCMetal Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Has everyone ever seen any other administration being this obsessed with the view “History” will have of them ?
—————————
The short answer - no.
‘Bush’s sanctimonious posturing compels the responsible historian to declare: I AM A REVISIONIST HISTORIAN.’
‘Bush believes that “it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how [the Iraq] war began.”5 Of course, it is the Bush administration that is trying to rewrite the history of how the war began. Responsible observers are now forced to revise Bush’s rewritten version so that it is closer to the facts. Four well-know examples should suffice to show that the Bush administration deceived the U.S. public, and that “Revisionists” are those who simply want to keep the record accurate for future historians of the Iraq War’
‘There is a second, more general reason to resist the president’s attack on “revisionism.”
History is revisionist. It is precisely the task of the historian to correct, that is, to revise, the popular misconceptions of the moment. Every responsible historian is perpetually in the position of the little child who sees that the emperor has no clothes, or, to take an example from the life of the mind, of Galileo when he muttered, “E pur se muove” (yet it does move).
The responsibility to revise falls especially on the historian of foreign policy. United States history is replete with controversy over reasons initially offered for going to war. Congressman Abraham Lincoln challenged President Polk as to the “spot” where the armies of Mexico and the United States first fired on each other in the 1840s. The circumstances causing the battleship Maine and the steamship Lusitania to be sunk are still debated. Within living memory, it now seems, the Johnson Administration deliberately falsified the alleged events that occasioned the so-called Tonkin Bay Resolution in August 1964.’
http://hnn.us/articles/22700.html
April 11th, 2008 at 10:24 ammary at 10:00 am
… ABC reports that Ashcroft “was troubled by the discussions.
…“According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: ‘Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.’”
i forget who said it, but on rachel maddow yesterday, it was opined that painting ashcroft in such a positive light could indicate that it was an ashcroft staffer who helped abc with this story…
whatever, we need more whistleblowers!
April 11th, 2008 at 10:30 am2MillionLightYearsToAndromeda Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 9:44 am
“Don Siegelman Says Rove Involved in Theft of 2002 Election”
I guess THIS is why some Congresscritters do not want to have hearings on the Hill about his case.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:33 amOur own representation of Torquemada, Dick Cheney, is off fly-fishing in Idaho while soldiers are dying and people are going hungry here. Nice.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:40 amThe boy king is off to Crawford — all this White House stuff is hard work — time to cut more brush.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:41 amMarie Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 10:41 am
The boy king is off to Crawford — all this White House stuff is hard work — time to cut more brush.
And drive around in his pick-up truck , to appear as if he’s still Johnny American Everyman ; as if every American was born with a silver spoon in their mouth and has been bailed out throughout their entire existence ………….
April 11th, 2008 at 10:50 amTime to start flagging Nicky, folks.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:02 amralph the wonder llama Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Uh oh… this makes me a little nervous. Half of my comments are juvenile distratctions.
I guess I’d better shape up around here.
________________
HAH! Waaaay aheada ya, Ralfie… TWICE as many of my comments are juvenile distractions. That makes ALMOST everything I say…
Never mind.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:05 amNicky Barnes Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 10:39 am
All This bad news is good. It will help Obama win in November. Let’s be happy about this. We will soon have complete power and we can impose our Progressive agenda! Things are looking up.
______________________________
Wrong.
Wrong.
Wrong.
Unlike the neocons, we are not all about “winning” — we are all about making our country and our world a better place. A tanking economy could very well help the Democratic candidate win in November, but at what cost? People losing their jobs? People losing their homes? People losing their retirement funds? People starving? People dying because they can’t afford medical care? That kind of “winning” is never worth it.
If a mother allowed her sick child to go untreated because it would help her get publicity and attention, decent people would call that reprehensible. And rightly so. It’s the same with problems in our country — it’s more important to fix them and mitigate the suffering than to exploit them for political gain.
The neocons may trash the country in order to gain power and implement their agenda, but we don’t. Because it’s not right.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:06 amI suspect “Nicky” is a troll, misshusseinmolly.
Only trolls use phrases like “Progressive agenda”.
Especially w/ a Capital P.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:08 amFood as a Weapon - The Rape of Iraq
snip
Iraq is home to the oldest agricultural traditions in the world. Historical, genetic and archaeological evidence, including radiocarbon dating of carbon-containing materials at the site, show that the Fertile Crescent, including modern Iraq, was the center of domestication for a remarkable array of today’s primary agricultural crops and livestock animals. Wheat, barley, rye, lentils, sheep, goats, and pigs were all originally brought under human control around 8000 BCE. Iraq is where wild wheat was once originated and many of its cereal varieties have been exported and adapted worldwide. The beginning of agriculture led inexorably to the development of human civilization.
snip
(bremer’s Order 81) Order 81 deals specifically with Plant Variety Protection (PVP) because it is designed to protect the commercial interests of corporate seed companies. Its aim is to force Iraqi farmers to plant so-called “protected” crop varieties ‘defined as new, distinct uniform and stable’, and most likely genetically modified. This means Iraqi farmers will have one choice; to buy PVP registered seeds. Order 81 opens the way for patenting (ownership) of plant forms, and facilitates the introduction of genetically modified crops or organisms (GMOs) to Iraq. U.S. agricultural biotechnology corporations, such as Monsanto and Syngenta will be the beneficiaries. Iraqi farmers will be forced to buy their seeds from these corporations.
snip
Iraq had kept its precious natural seed varieties in a seed bank in the town of Abu Ghraib. Sometime during the early part of the occupation the seed bank vanished, another casualty of the Iraq War. The Agriculture Ministry, fortunately, had taken the precaution of creating a back-up seed bank in neighboring Syria.
All of this was imposed by the US on Iraq without discussion or debate.
http://www.dailykos.com/ storyonly/ 2008/ 4/ 9/ 13738/ 98820/ 681/ 492574
I think many of us had visions of Iraq as a dry, barren desert. Well, now it probably is.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:14 amGlad to see one of McCain’s advisors (Charlie Black) runs the lobbying firm that handled Chalabi and the INC ‘account’ for years. Propagating lies and convincing the sheep that war in Iraq was necessary all on our tax dollars.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:26 amWhere’s Dubya today? Rumor has it that he’s back in Texas on another well-deserved(?) vacation, cutting down bushes, getting drunk, practicing his tap-dance steps and crying on command. Gotta get ready for the pope’s visit, ya know.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:54 amMCMetal Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 9:59 am
“House Judiciary Committee lawyers declared that the White House and Congress are at a ‘constitutional impasse’ in a legal motion filed Thursday in federal court aimed at forcing former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to testify before the panel.” In the motion, the lawyers compared the impasse “to President Nixon’s attempts to stonewall inquiries into the Watergate scandal.”
Since when is investigating unethical and illegal behavior butting heads with those attempting to cover it up referred to as a “constitutional impasse” ?
It’s only one of several “constitutional impasses” because it is the Dept. of Justice that is responsible for enforcing such subpeonas…and it is also the Dept. of Justice that would prosecute under the War Crimes Act. There is obvious evidence that the very top officials in this administration were intimately involved in just such war crimes (i.e. Mary’s post above). But if the Justice Department refused to prosecute, Congress could do very little and would then have to rely on the Hague process to intervene.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:58 amTRoS, I’ll go a step beyond that. I’m pretty confident that “Nicky Barnes” is the same troll who can’t spell who’s been demonstrating his pathetic loneliness on these threads for weeks.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:16 pmI would like to think Cheney talks to freaky aliens, but the reflection looks like an arm and a hand holding a fishing rod.
And yes the Constitutional showdown appears to be looming. Bush is the trickiest Prez since tricky Dick Nixon. My apologies to tricky people
April 11th, 2008 at 12:21 pmNicky Barnes Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 10:39 am
All This bad news is good. It will help Obama win in November. Let’s be happy about this. We will soon have complete power and we can impose our Progressive agenda! Things are looking up.
I think this is a troll. Agree?
April 11th, 2008 at 12:28 pmFunny how the Right likes to whine about being “imposed” upon when sensible adults start to run portions of the Government. Like we are imposing religious beliefs, what to do with your body, etc. LOL
April 11th, 2008 at 12:34 pmThere seems to be a consensus on that point.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:37 pmAnybody else tune into Larry King last night to watch Randi Rhodes interviewed?
I’d rather pull my fingernails off with pliers, thanks! No offense to Randi…
April 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm.
The Memo with a G.W.Bush signature on it…
http://www.gwu.edu/ ~nsarchiv/ NSAEBB/ NSAEBB127/ 02.02.07.pdf
.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:34 pmAnd the beat goes on Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Food as a Weapon - The Rape of Iraq
—————————
Why do I fear Iraqi farmers will be committing suicide in mass numbers years from now as their crops fail and they’re indebted to Monsanto, just as the farmers in India have.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/23/7831/
April 11th, 2008 at 1:57 pmI want to know when the collective public outrage will begin — when this will headline every news program on radio and TV - when the newspapers will print all follow up information to the investigation of this.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:05 pmI’d like to thank Faith in Public Life for assuming that only those with faith care about torture, genocide, poverty and the likes. It’s good to know they’re on the case so my apathetic atheist ass can keep on being concerned with gays and vaginas.
Self-righteous and pious - the lot of them.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:56 pmWhat have you missed?
The latest chympie approval poll is distinguished in that the differential spread is at an all time high of FORTY.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:05 pmAP-Ipsos
4/7-9/08
Approve 28
Disapprove 68
Unsure *
Disapprove -40
http://youtube.com/ watch?v=SqDy6H1bEQs&feature=related
President dip-shit should be less concerned about the quality of life for the citizens of Iran, and be more concerned about the quality of life for the citizens of these United States of America. He is from here, after all. Unfortunately.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:48 pm2MillionLightYearsToAndromeda Says:
April 11th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Why do I fear Iraqi farmers will be committing suicide in mass numbers years from now as their crops fail and they’re indebted to Monsanto, just as the farmers in India have.
Sorry for the late response. The article you linked to broke my heart. I hope we stay on top of this issue because it will go on much longer than any war we are fighting. The rape of Iraq is happening right here and right now in the good ol’ US of A.
April 11th, 2008 at 4:59 pm